Owner of Beach Hotties Tanning salon accused of trafficking morphine

People were piling into the Beach Hotties Tanning salon near the University of Central Florida and leaving with more than a faux sun-kissed glow, undercover agents said.

The salon's owner, Panagiotis Karamihail, and an accomplice were arrested Thursday during an undercover Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation drug sting.

According to agents, Karamihail used his tanning salon to traffic painkillers. Co-defendant Melinda "Mindy" Lanum is accused of transporting the drugs and money between Karamihail and his customers.

Both were arrested Thursday and remain in the Orange County Jail. Karamihail's bail was set at $500,150 on charges of the sale and delivery of morphine and trafficking more than 28 grams of morphine.

Lanum's bail was set at $100,150 for the same charges.

According to an arrest report, an undercover MBI agent put Lanum in contact with another undercover agent to arrange a sale of the morphine pills.

Lanum and the agent agreed to a purchase price for the drugs, then Lanum told the agent to meet her at Beach Hotties Tanning at 4650 N. Alafaya Trail for the transaction, the report said.

The agent, the report said, gave Lanum $500 for the prescription drugs, and in return she gave him 94 blue and red pills in a plastic storage bag along with an orange medicine bottle to store the tablets after the agent counted them.

Once the drugs and money were exchanged, the undercover agent signaled for Orlando police to make the arrests.

When police searched Karamihail, they found the undercover agent's cash in his front pocket, the report said.

Investigators said Karamihail told them he only took the money from Lanum because the woman owed him the money, but he would not say much more.

"You guys are not stupid," he reportedly said. "You know what you're doing, so I want my lawyer."

Before they can be released from jail, Lanum and Karamihail will have to prove that their bail money isn't drug money.